Tudor Clee sought justice for pregnant New Zealanders impacted by the COVID-19 border closures
One of NZ Lawyer’s 2023 Most Influential Lawyers was instrumental in the end of MIQ as a result of his pro bono mission to help pregnant New Zealanders through the COVID-19 border closures.
Barrister Tudor Clee took notice of the plight faced by pregnant women and their partners who were unable to return to New Zealand while he was home on parental leave with his newborn. He wound up accepting 35 cases that led to 6 months of litigation and to him filing judicial reviews in the High Court for the first time and battling leading government agencies.
“There was no option to say no; there was no one to pass them on to; and there were no other options for them. We had women facing serious medical consequences – women in dangerous situations like one in Dubai who was facing arrest because she was unmarried”, Clee said.
He was the legal representative in a case where a pregnant journalist working in Afghanistan was denied an MIQ voucher to return home to have her baby – the key case that led to the lifting of the MIQ system as a whole.
“When human rights are curtailed, it is usually the people who got them last who lose them first. As such, it was entirely predictable that women’s rights, particularly reproductive rights, required special attention”, Clee explained.
The full list of the 2023 Most Influential Lawyers can be found here.
